Felice D. Gaer

Felice D. Gaer is director of AJC's Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights. The institute conducts research and advocacy to strengthen international human rights protections and institutions.

>In addition to her role at AJC, Gaer is vice chair of the Committee Against Torture, the United Nations treaty-monitoring body that reviews government compliance with the Convention Against Torture, a treaty ratified by more than 130 countries. Nominated by the U.S. and elected by the ratifying states in 1999 and again in 2003, Gaer is the first American to serve as an independent expert on this official UN treaty body. She is also vice chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, a federal commission that advises the president and secretary of state on U.S. policy to advance freedom of thought, conscience, religion and belief, around the world. Appointed in 2001, she was reappointed in 2003 by Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

Gaer was a public member of nine U.S. delegations to UN human rights negotiations between 1993 and 1999, including the UN Commission on Human Rights, the World Conference on Women (1995), and the World Conference on Human Rights (1993.) She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the steering committee of Human Rights Watch/Europe and Central Asia. Additionally, she serves on the board of the Andrei Sakharov Foundation; the Eleanor Roosevelt Center; the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute; and the International League for Human Rights, of which she is vice president. In 1998, Gaer was chair of the steering committee for the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a coalition of more than 100 organizations. She has been a member of the Carter Center's International Human Rights Council since 1994.

In 2002 and again 2003 she was cited in The Forward's annual "Forward Fifty" list of Jewish leaders. Calling her, "the American Jewish international human rights expert in residence," the newspaper cited her unique "wealth of experience...in the field of human rights."

Gaer is a frequent lecturer and author of more than 25 articles about human rights, the UN, non-governmental organizations, U.S. policy, and related issues. Her essay, "And Never the Twain Shall Meet? The Struggle to Establish Women's Rights as International Human Rights," appears in the American Bar Association's book, The International Human Rights of Women: Instruments of Change.

Gaer earned her bachelor's degree, with honors, from Wellesley College. She also received a master of arts degree and a master of philosophy degree - both in political science - as well as a Certificate of the Russian Institute, all from Columbia University. In 1995, she received the Alumnae Achievement Award from Wellesley.